Rumors started swirling this week that Microsoft was set to slash the price of its Surface RT tablet. The Surface RT tablet hasn't sold in the volumes that Microsoft had forecast so the Redmond, Washington-based giant is hoping that a steep price but will give its tablet some traction.

The base price for the Surface RT 32 GB tablet after the price cut will be $349.99.

The Surface RT with 64 GB of storage will sell for $449.99. Users wanting the Surface RT with the slick Touch Cover featuring an integrated keyboard will have to cough up $449.99 for a 32 GB version or $549.99 for the 64 GB version.

Staples ad for July 14

These price cuts now been confirmed by national retailer Staples via its weekly promotional ad. The ad says that the price cut will be in effect as of Sunday, July 14.

The same with WP8. MS more or less 'bought' Nokia for releasing a smartphone with WP8 granting Nokia many exclusive rights which makes it impossible for other companies without those or other rights to compete. They can't change the hardware, and they also aren't allowed to alter the OS. All they can do is put the same hardware in a different case and add some apps. Yeah.So Nokia is the WP8 smartphone producer which handles the hardware and navigation specific extensions, while MS handles the OS and remaining ecosystem.

Maybe MS will move the Surface production (at least with Windows RT) over to Nokia, too, so MS can focus on their OS and Office, instead of becoming a hardware producer and seller. Nokia can do this much better most probably.

The competition went with Android long ago and probably stays there, because only there they can add their own taste to the OS and hardware. (see Galaxy Note 10.1, the combo systems running both Windows 8 and Android, impossible with Win RT).They probably stay there forever because only Android supports everything (Intel, ARM, MIPS Socs) while Windows RT only Qualcomm SoCs.

I would prefer Microsoft to take full control of their ecosystem and deliver a full hardware experience to phone as well. While the specs on the surface may be trailing the latest and greatest android tablets, the surface is by far the most polished off looking device I've ever used. It puts the iPad to shame. Nokia by comparison is a joke with their big bulky plastic phones. I love my Windows phone, but I've refused to upgrade to WP8 so far because the choice of phone models is absolute garbage. If Microsoft released a Surface Phone, I would probably buy it on launch day.

Windows Phone and Windows RT should run on any ARM device. WP8 currently only uses Qualcomm, likely due to a feature set they want. Windows RT, on the other hand, already runs on a variety of devices. The surface runs on an Nvidia Tegra 3, for example.

"Game reviewers fought each other to write the most glowing coverage possible for the powerhouse Sony, MS systems. Reviewers flipped coins to see who would review the Nintendo Wii. The losers got stuck with the job." -- Andy Marken